


Come Back Tomorrow

by Sophisticated_Adult



Series: A Good And Chill Ship (The Ship Is On Fire) [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underswap, M/M, Neutral Route, Underswap Papyrus, Underswap Sans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 09:59:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7310443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophisticated_Adult/pseuds/Sophisticated_Adult
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the grand scheme of things, one extra death is practically neligible. Papyrus knows this.</p><p>But it's a death he can prevent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come Back Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> I'm months and months late to the Undertale train and my brain decided that first and foremost it wanted Swap!Sansby. THANKS BRAIN. (I'm probably fudging some Swap stuff, esp. re: Grillby and also that I just couldn't take the puns from Sans and give them to Papyrus, but hey who's going to stop me)
> 
> Unbeta'd, any concrit welcome because man I don't know what I'm doing here someone help I was already in robot hell and now this

 

 

Papyrus sighed and leaned his head against his arms on the table. He liked Muffet’s. It was a very classy establishment, whatever Sans said about the roller-skates, plus it had these little booths off to the side you could huddle yourself into without being disturbed – the staff knew him well enough by now.  Heh. _Should_ know him.

Sometimes he just needed to get away from it all. Just forget, if only for a few blissful hours before returning to reality, that everything was terrible forever.

Well. Maybe not everything. But he wouldn’t find it here – for whatever baffling reason, Sans was quite open about his dislike of the little restaurant. Papyrus was pretty sure his bro wouldn’t step foot in the place if not to drag his sorry butt out every once in a while.

Well, he thought, already slightly woozy from the wine, the tally was going to have to go up a notch.

\---

Ugh. _Ugh_. Sans _hated_ Muffet’s.

He had nothing against spiders themselves, as such, as long as they weren’t directly crawling on his face or something. But Muffet’s just – creeped him out. Too many eyes from too many directions, judging him as he vainly tried to get his useless lump of a brother up and out of there _again._

Sans scowled at the offending half-drunk glass of wine. He’d never touched the stuff himself, save an experimental sip once that had tasted awful, so he didn’t know if was just that his brother was a lightweight or if it was a skeleton thing in general.

He didn’t plan on finding out.

“Come _on_ ,” he muttered, shoving not-so-lightly at Papyrus’ arm. “We got sentry duty in like fifteen minutes, bro, you _really_ wanna explain this to Alphys? Because I am _not_ taking another lecture for you.” She was so well-meaning, yet slightly terrifying.

A faint whistling noise escaped through the gaps in Papyrus’ teeth. Other than that, there was no response. Sans pressed a hand against his skull in frustration. He was this close to just pinging Papyrus’ soul blue and dragging him out, to hell with all the staring that weird skeleton magic would get him. At least it would be more efficient than this.

“Can I help you…?”

Sans did not jump. He was merely momentarily startled at being addressed when he was not expecting it. Thank you _very_ much.

“Oh, heh, I’m just here to pick up my bro. Just a glass of water would be…” his voice died in his throat. He’d never seen a guy made of fire before.

“W-wait, never mind that!” He called out as the waiter nodded and turned away towards the kitchen.

“I can handle some water,” the fire elemental replied, his quiet voice nearly indistinguishable from the crackling and popping of flames.

“Oh, right.” Sans stared at his retreating back, then elbowed his sleeping brother. “Hey, you didn’t tell me about the cool hot guy!” He snickered at his own joke. But seriously, he’d never seen this guy before and Snowdin was tiny. Had he only just moved over and Sans hadn’t been invited to the (heh) housewarming party?

“…here…”

That was fast. And the glass wasn’t even warm as he took it, Sans was impressed to note. Guy had to have crazy control to manage that. At least, he assumed so. He wasn’t exactly an expert on fire monsters.

“Thanks,” Sans said, fingers tingling lightly where they’d brushed against the flames. Not an unpleasant feeling. “Oh, I should probably do this now, he’s gonna get real cranky in a sec.” He fished in his pocket with his free hand and passed over a few coins to the elemental, who took his tip with no comment. “Hey, watch this.” He grinned and winked, then leaned over his brother, bracing one hand against the table to give himself more height. Intense concentration guided his hand as he very carefully poured the water directly onto Papyrus’ eyesocket.

The ensuing screech was _totally worth it_.

\---

“It’s in the back of my _head_ ,” Papyrus groaned as Sans cheerfully lead him out of the restaurant. “Do you even know how gross that is? It’s probably going to _freeze_.”

“Do _you_ know how gross it is that-“ Sans checked his watch – “we have about two minutes to clock in? And we’re ten minutes away?”

“Oh, ‘zat it?” Papyrus grumbled. “Here, lemme.” He grabbed Sans’ hand.

The smaller skeleton took a step back, suddenly unsure. “Wait, is that a good idea when you’re-”

A lurching twist. “-Sorta drunk?” Sans finished for the sake of it. They were now at their sentry point.

“Heh.” Papyrus grinned, shoving his hands in his pockets. Sometimes the cold air was enough by itself to snap him out of it. He let himself be a _little_ smug as he watched Sans gratefully clock in just in time.

“I must attend to my puzzles!” Sans declared, one hand pointed heroically towards the sky. “But first!” He brought it down to point at his brother. “You didn’t tell me about the cool hot guy!” It was just too good to pass up.

“What?” Papyrus stared at him, nonplussed. Then – “Oh.” Realisation. He’d heard the joke a _lot_ of times by now.

_Welp._

He was so _stupid_. The second day of the reset – today – was Grillby’s first day at Muffet’s. He’d written himself a damn note about it, entire timelines after he’d stopped really trying any more, because this was one thing directly caused by himself.

If he didn’t go to Muffet’s, Sans didn’t meet Grillby before things went bad. An extra heartbreak, an extra death, could be avoided.

 _Or,_ a poisonous voice whispered in his head, it was an extra happiness he was snatching away from his doomed brother so he, Papyrus, didn’t have to add to his own guilt.

“…you okay there, bro? Was my joke so hilarious you’ve transcended spacetime?”

“Oh – no, sorry.” Papyrus dragged a hand down his face. “I was just reminded of something, sorry.”

Two sorrys in a row, Sans noted. His eyes glowed a soft blue. Paps just needed some distractions. “Perhaps I can check the puzzles later.”

\---

Sans and Grillby hit it off, as they always did.

“I have a date tonight!” Sans announced the next afternoon in excitement, stars in his eyes.

“Friendship date?” Papyrus asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yeah, like a get-to-know-me date,” Sans  explained cheerfully. “But if it turns into anything more…well, I can’t guarantee it won’t!” There was a pause. “Pretend I have eyebrows and that I’m waggling them.”

“Done,” said Papyrus, sprawling further on the couch. At least he wouldn’t have to do anything for the next couple hours. “You did a great job. Very impressive.”

“Thanks. Okay, I have to get ready!” Sans nearly tripped over himself in his excitement to get up the stairs. He was almost halfway up when Papyrus called out.

Sans paused, hand on the banister. “Yeah?” He turned back to see Papyrus mute the TV. Was this serious?

When Papyrus turned to face him he looked much older than Sans knew he was, so tired that he could almost believe all the excuses.

“Have you considered…not dating this guy?”

“It’s just a friendship date, Paps, he might not even really like me, never mind like me that way. I was just kidding around.”

Well, he’d tried. But Sans was still hovering on the stairs, anxiously waiting for his response. For approval.

“I mean…if you really don’t want me to…is there something you know I don’t? Is it to do with those dreams you have?”

Papyrus mentally winced. Sans was good at catching people off guard with how perceptive he could be.

“…sort of,” Papyrus admitted. “It’s not Grillby himself, but…what comes after.”

“You’re sayin’ bad stuff happens if me and Grillby are pals?”

“…bad stuff happens anyway. It just depends if he’s involved or not.”

\---

 _“Huff…heh…human! You are pretty good!” Sans was using a floating blue bone as a horizontal platform, slightly unnerved by how the human’s upturned gaze was fixed on him. Waiting. “But! I am also pretty good! In fact, I - ow ow ow -” He clutched his shoulder. No more heroic pointing for now, it seemed. He’d taken some hits, pain flaring from his shoulder and his side, but he was sure it was nothing he couldn’t power through. Not to a future Royal Guardsman! “A-hem! As I was saying! I feel you are in need of guidance! And I, the Magnificent-” he yelped and swung the bone around, catching his balance as something whizzed past his face. They’d thrown the_ knife _! At his_ head _!_

_“Now, you see, this is exactly what I am talking about!” Sans called out as the human dived for the knife._

_The ground beneath them exploded. The human didn’t even make a sound as they rolled, grabbing the knife handle and coming back up on their feet before turning to face the new threat._

_Sans stared. Grillby was running over the snow towards them, one arm outstretched. Another fireball shot through the air, aimed straight at the human. They leapt backwards to avoid it as it connected with where their feet had been, sending up a fierce shower of snow._

_“Grillby!! I’m supposed to be capturing them, not_ killing _them!”_

 _Something went_ thunk _in the back of his head._

_“oh.”_

_Sans wobbled. The bone vanished and he crashed to the ground, landing hard on his back. Grillby was frozen – as frozen as a fire elemental could get, anyway – staring in horror._

_“Well, that didn’t go as planned.”_

_\---_

_The human smirked._

_Sans’ dust was spread over the snow and they were pleased with themselves._

_On the whole, Grillby was not a monster to be feared. He’d been glad to move away from Hotland and all the expectations placed on his shoulders._

_They would be proud of him now, though, as his fire rose and rose, raging, his very soul crying out._

_The human stumbled back, a flicker of something in their expression as Grillby approached, his form expanding. Sparks danced in the heated air. The human backed up once more, but seemed to know that outrunning fire was not an option._

_Or perhaps it was something else? They watched him closely. Almost like a greedy curiosity, even as the flames surrounded them._

_\---_

_Papyrus had nothing to say to the human, merely watched with dead eyes as they dragged themselves towards Waterfall._

_The fire had burned itself out. Dust and ash mixed together in a slurry of melted snow._

_The tall skeleton knelt down and gently picked up a blue scarf, before clutching it tightly in his hands._

_He’d said_ I’m sorry _all those other times, too. It had never worked._

_He moved to get up, but paused. At his feet were a pair of broken glasses, cracked and covered in wet soot and dust. He hesitated for a moment before picking them up._

_“Thanks,” he said quietly. It hadn’t been enough. Grillby was too weak to actually bring down the human, but he’d tried._

_That counted._

_He put the glasses in his pocket, wrapped the scarf around his neck, then took a shortcut to his room. He dug in his drawer for the notebook he’d stopped using a long time ago and flipped through the pages of increasingly scrawled and occasionally incoherent advice from his past selves that never really worked, or was simply undone soon after in a reset if it did._

_He took up a whole page to write_ don’t go to Muffet’s _in big black letters and underlined each word twice._

_Maybe he’d listen to himself for once._

\---

Back in the present, Papyrus still sometimes expected to feel the glasses when he stuck his hands in his pockets, even in timelines where Grillby was safely evacuated. Whether back to Hotland or to the far ends of New Home, he’d never bothered to find out. It hardly mattered.

“Well.” Sans drummed his hands on the banister. “Maybe I could cancel. In that case. You watching anything good?”

“No,” Papyrus said shamelessly. “Wanna make fun of it?”

“Heck yeah I do. Lemme call Grillbz first. He’s a cool guy, he’ll understand.”

As Sans hurried up to his room and shut the door with a click, Papyrus felt in his pockets the phantom glasses that weren’t there.

 _So you’ll save HIM but won’t lift a damn finger for your own brother_ , a jeering voice taunted inside his skull.

He mentally flipped it off. He’d tried. He’d tried so hard and nothing worked. Papyrus slumped down the couch some more, nearly horizontal.

Saving someone by _not_ doing something ought to be achievable even for him, but he’d still almost screwed that up too.

He allowed himself a small smile before Sans came back down.

Almost.


End file.
